Child of Darkness
by Archonix
Summary: Reposted. The year is 2006. Lisa Simpson lives and works in New York, carrying a terrible secret and seeking vengeance for the death of her family.
1. Age of Innocence

_September 19 2006_

_Journal,_

_The hunger is stronger than ever today, I fear I may be unable to resist it much longer. But I must, otherwise I will have betrayed both myself and the memory of my family. Mark came again today, to my little room. He brought me some food, which was nice, but ultimately not worth much. I had to hide lest I attacked him. He complained about this for a while outside the door, but I think he understands. I might go so far as to call him a friend, if I were willing to risk that. I daren't though, for fear of losing him like I lost all the others, like I lost my family._

_I miss them especially today._

**Child of Darkness**

Lightening flashed across the dark streets of the city, illuminating the slick, rain soaked sidewalk for brief moments of time. Streetlamps guttered and spat their never-ending symphony of light across the darkness, sending long black shadows into distant corners, alleyways, doors.

Out of one of these doors she stepped into the falling mist, pulling the collar of a black leather coat a little closer around her shoulders. Her step betrayed an unheeding disdain overlaid with a stealthy appreciation of the danger of being out so late at night. Of course even the criminal element preferred to stay at home on nights like this. So, there was only one danger to face on a night like this. Her own kind.

They were nearby. She could smell them on the air, very close now... did they know she was here? Did they care? She never knew if they could sense the difference within her, the sheer force of will that kept her above their animal instincts...

They stayed away tonight. The sun would be up soon anyway, and then it wouldn't really matter any more.

It hadn't always been like this. There as a time, she could remember, so very long ago when the Hunger hadn't clawed at her, when she had been young, innocent... human. She felt her mind casting back once more, playing over the events of her life...

_So long ago. _

_Mom..._

**AGE OF INNOCENCE**

**September 1 1999**

"Lisa, it's time for supper! Are you coming down?"

"In a minute!"

Lisa Simpson placed her pen gently on the desk and looked at her reflection in the mirror. She was a year older now, 15... yet she didn't feel any different. It was the same every year.

This year was a little different though. Lisa, for the first time in her life, had noticed how _different_ boys really were; not in the dreamy, innocent way she had longed after Correy in her youth, but something subtler... but Lisa never dated. _Really_ dated. There had been that fling with Milhouse last year, but they hadn't even kissed.

_Lucky for me,_ she thought. Now though... there was only one change she had made to her appearance, in all the years of her life. She touched the thin black choker at her neck and thought of the young man a whole two grades above her, who never seemed to notice little Lisa even when he spoke to her. His apparent disdain for everyone else spoke volumes to Lisa in itself; he was a man confident in himself, feeling superior to everyone, and that appealed to her in some way.

But he hadn't noticed her, had he? Even though she was starting to dress just a little like him now, to get his attention perhaps? Lisa didn't know why she would do that...

"Lisa!"

"Coming!" In the fragmented darkness of her memory, Lisa jumped from her seat and ran downstairs to her family.

She shivered slightly in the rain and touched the choker at her neck, the only memento of the life she had lost now, but also the reminder of what she had become.

September 1 2006 

Sunlight shafted across the room from the window, casting a thin wall of brightness in the dusty air, shining a razor-thin crease of brightness on the far wall and floor and the single picture that lay on the low, dusty table in the centre of the room, a picture of a family in happier times, long dead.

At one time Lisa might have worried about the dust affecting her health, as she had worried about so many things in her youth. Now it was the light itself. She leaned gently across and pushed the curtain against its partner, cutting out the last direct beams of light and leaving the room cast in a suffuse orange glow.

Through long years of training she had managed to build a tolerance to the sun, enough that she could even go outside on cloudy days, although there was a risk of sunburn. It was tolerable, but by no means ideal...

She settled down at the table, opening a large book and pressing a smaller, black leather-bound bible to one side. She glanced at the Christian book, wondering why she even had it; it was hard to find solace within its thin pages these days, at least not alongside her less savoury contemplations.

After nearly eight years of searching she was getting a little closer to her goal; once she had completed that goal she would step out into the sunlight one last time. Perhaps then she might find what she needed in the book, but not now.

The other, larger tome in front of her was so diametrically opposed to the first that it seemed somehow perverse to have them both in the same room. A list, acquired at great expense, of the "recruits" into an organisation that she was, technically, a part of. It was the final piece of a puzzle that would hopefully lead to the one who had put her in this position. She thought about the man who had smuggled it out of the Senate Research library in Washington. The look on his face when she had found his body later that day, the vicious wound on his neck. He had been a friend.

So she had moved to another state once more, to New York, home of more noirish novels than she could remember, and even a film or two about people like her. It was mildly interesting to note how wrong they all were, with the possible of Buffy, oddly enough. Except there was no slayer. It was more like that film... she smiled just a little when she remembered being thrown out of the theatre for laughing so much.

New York was a quiet city these days, especially at night. There were few of her kind in the city, most of them had been driven out years ago by the tough zero tolerance laws and the eventual curfews. They didn't apply to Lisa, of course, as she worked nights in a government office, filing papers and doing research.

But now she was distracting herself. So close, and she couldn't keep her mind on things. She turned back to the book and flipped the pages, looking for the name. Julian Price. After searching the entire volume she came up empty, and frustrated. He wasn't there. Her friend had died in vain, just like all the rest.

She slammed the book closed, sending a fresh cloud of dust into the dull atmosphere of the room.

There was a knock at the door. Lisa ignored it, preferring to sulk over the battered leather binding of the list. But, eventually, she had to give into the persistent knocking.

"Go away!" she yelled irritably.

"Lisa? It's me, Mark. Mark Brachino? From the office?"

"What do you want?" Mark. He followed Lisa around like a puppy at work, probably attracted by her aloof, quiet ways. He was so like the last, Lisa was scared of getting too close to him.

"I-I just wanted to talk, that's all. Boss sent some extra work down here for you too, said you liked doing research." Well, at least one thing in her life was normal. Escaping from work was harder than anything in the world.

"Just a minute." Lisa stood up slowly, covering the List with a newspaper and a pile of unrelated books. She crossed the small kitchen, into the hall and paused at the door. _If I let him in, he'll get a bit closer won't he?_

"Come on Lisa, hurry up! It's freezing out here!"

_If I get close, I'll lose him, just like the others. I can't do that, can I?_ But another pert of her mind argued that it might be different this time. Maybe...

"I know it's your birthday today Lisa. I looked it up... so are you going to let me in?"

_Dammit_. Her birthday... she couldn't push him away now, not if she wanted to retain any last vestiges of her humanity. To hell with the consequences.

She opened the door.

September 1 1999 

"Surprise!"

Lisa jumped back in shock as her family yelled at her. Then the party things came showering at her like confetti; hats, whistles, presents... she retreated into a numb, shocked shell of herself, standing mutely among the celebration. Mere moments passed, though each seemed like an age, before she uttered her first words.

"What the hell?"

"Lisa!" Homer yelled.

"Aww Homie let her be. We _did_ give her quite a shock."

"You're right about that," she mumbled. "What's going on anyway? I said I didn't want a party this year."

"Well Lis," her brother argued, "You've gotta admit, it is fun when things like this happen. Right?"

"I guess..." and it was fun, truthfully. She had secretly hoped that her family would do something for her birthday, even though she had protested otherwise several times. Yet, even up to the last minute they had seemed totally unconcerned, almost uncaring... not that it mattered in the least now.

Lisa accepted a plate of party food, real party food full important food groups like Sticky Stuff and Sugar, from Marge. "We've got presents for you, and we even invited some of your school friends over."

"What? But I don't _have_ any school friends!"

"Nonsense..." Marge smiled a motherly smile. "I did some research, so I think you'll like who's coming. It won't be like the last time I tried this."

The 'last time' had involved several people Lisa barely knew turning up, eating the food and then leaving without even speaking to her. That had unfortunately soured her friendship with Marge a little and, evidently, she was trying to make up for it this time around.

"I promise you won't be ignored this time," Marge said brightly. "And definitely no Milhouse either."

Well at least that was a relief. The poor boy was still besotted with her and was probably already rehearsing his pick-up lines for the senior prom that was many years away yet... Saved from that small embarrassment, Lisa wondered who could possibly be arriving on her doorstep.

The bell rang, prompting Bart, of all people, to leap up and run for the door yelling "I'll get it!"

"Who is it Bart?" Marge asked sardonically.

"Why it's Janey and... Ralph?" Bart shuffled backwards into the room, keeping a careful eye on the young simpleton. "Umm..."

"He's with me, if you're wondering," Janey explained. "We're kinda-sorta... y'know, 'friends'? Isn't that right Ralph?"

"Hi Lisa, hi Bart! You're my friend..." Ralph pointed at Bart and giggled childishly.

"I guess he hasn't changed much," said Bart to Lisa quietly.

"Oh I have, I have," replied Ralph, suddenly lucid and coherent. "The pills work wonders. I was just jazzin you a bit."

"Ha... ha..."

Ralph and Janey wandered away to the table, not holding hands, Lisa noticed. They were followed in by more people from Lisa's class, all of them actually quite familiar. Then the Librarian turned up, all ginger hair and saggy jowls, amazingly up to date on the latest trends whilst managing to keep an air of mystique about him. After him, one or two friends from outside school turned up. It was... pleasant.

"Odd," Marge said as the party got into full swing. "There was someone else... oh well, never mind." Lisa wondered who the someone else might be. Her heart quickened for a moment... she couldn't possibly know about Lisa's little... was it a crush? Fantasy? The doorbell rang again and this time Marge went to answer. Lisa heard her muffled voice alongside another, quieter one.

"Julian! Come on in! I hope you don't mind coming over at this time of night."

"Not at all Mrs Simpson, I seem to be staying up a lot later these days." The soft dulcet tones of his voice carried through the wall as clear as a bell, almost as if they were projected straight into Lisa's mind. She sighed, her face taking on a dreamy look.

"Lisa, there's someone here to see you." Marge guided Julian into the room. He was tall, gaunt, yet strikingly handsome. A shock of platinum hair topped off his pale features; high cheekbones offset against a thin, almost pointed chin, making him look almost elfish. Beneath that was black all the way to the ground dressed as he was in a Matrix style techno-goth outfit, complete with a single silver chain hanging from the leather chocker he wore. Lisa, for all the negative associations she saw in his manner of dress, felt like swooning.

"I brought you something," Julian mumbled. Was he as nervous as her? With renewed confidence Lisa took the small package offered and carefully removed the black paper. Inside was a small perspex box, enclosing a delicate silver brooch in the form of a snake biting it's own tail.

"Ouroboros," she whispered. "It's lovely."

Lisa pinned the brooch on to her dress, the silver on black a sharp contrast with the red material beneath. Maybe she should change that...

"Thank you," she said. Julian smiled a little. There seemed to be a hint of colour on his pale cheeks, which set Lisa blushing herself. "I'd better go and... uh... y'know..."

"Yeah, probably a good idea," he replied awkwardly.

Lisa moved into the small crowd around the food, making light conversation about inane subjects with a few close acquaintances, all the while thinking about Julian. Until yesterday ha hadn't seemed to notice her, yet from the way he acted around her... it was odd, really. He was two years her senior, yet he acted just like the boys in her own class when they were around women. Maybe there was hope after all...

Eventually she could bear it no longer. She pulled away from the crowd to find Julian... but he had already left. Lisa sought out Marge and grabbed her hand.

"Mom where did he go?"

"Who, Julian? I don't know sweetie, he mentioned something about a meeting at a 'goth' club, I think. Some kind of group anyway... why?"

"I..." Lisa baulked. What could she say? It was obvious her mother already knew _something_ of what was going on. "I... just wondered."

"He likes you," Marge replied.

"He does."

"You know, he actually asked me what you were doing for your birthday? I was a little surprised really, but he asked if he could come along..."

"He did?" So it _was_ true... _Maybe I'll see him tomorrow then,_" Lisa thought, her face turning dreamy again. She returned to the party and made an effort to enjoy herself.

September 1 2006 

"Don't you ever sleep?" Lisa asked Mark warily as she let him into her apartment. He smiled wanly

"I _could_ ask you the same thing," he protested. "Anyway, I brought a drink, sort of a birthday present I guess."

Mark held up a wine bottle, which Lisa presumed to be something cheap and bubbly. She was taken aback when she saw the label.

"Moët? How can you afford Moët on your paycheck?"

"I guess I'll have to starve for a week," he said. "I just wanted you to have something nice for once. Seems like you never do."

"How the hell would you know?"

"Hey, I know people all right? I watch. You've spent half your life being dumped on from a great height and that's why you're working nights in that craphole we call an office. Now, are you going to drink your birthday present or what?"

"Well, if you put it that way..." Lisa took hold of the bottle with a slight grimace. It had been a long time since she had drunk anything stronger than water. "Perhaps you should open it."

"Okay."

Lisa handed the bottle back and led Mark into the kitchen. It was actually quite bare, barely used... she didn't have much use for it really, and dust had settled on some of the worktops.

"I guess you eat out a lot huh."

"Wha? Oh... yes, that's right." If only he knew about her trips to the slaughterhouse... "I prefer fresh food as much as possible. Anyway what about this work you told me about?"

"I left it out there somewhere," Mark replied, motioning vaguely toward the other room, before returning to working the cork loose. "It's just some research material for the governor's office I think, I didn't really look hard."

The cork shot out of the bottle, bouncing off the wall and ceiling, eventually dropping to a halt in the middle of the table. Mark looked down at it. "Hey, perfect shot..."

He reached two slight dusty glasses out of a cupboard and poured them both a drink.

"To birthdays," he said, raising his glass.

"No... anniversaries." Mark shrugged at Lisa's comment and they both drank, although Lisa didn't take as much as him. The flavour was... different. Weak.

"Hey what's this?" Mark put his glass down and started lifting books from the pile on the table, books with names like 'Pratchett's Psychology of the Vampire' and 'Mythical Beasts and their Modern Counterparts in the Human Psyche' "You're into some heavy stuff, you know that?"

Lisa could only watch as he dug deeper into the pile. "You know I'd rather you didn't look at that."

"Eh, what harm can it do?" He paused and looked up again. "Unless you have something freaky hidden in there."

"No." Lisa snatched the book Mark was holding from his hands and put it back on the table. "I don't want you messing up my system. All these books are for a private research project I'm doing-

"About vampires."

"About people who _claim_ to be vampires. I'm hoping I can take something to the AG's office because you'd be surprised at how many murders these people commit."

"I know bullshit when I hear it, Lisa... but on the other hand this fizz is losing its fizz. We'll go in the other room if that makes you happier."

"Please."

Lisa stepped back and let him go first. A small part of her mind wondered if she should tell him, but the rest argued that it would just scare him away, or that he'd call her a freak or something, which was something she didn't like hearing. Even having him in the apartment was an incredible strain for her; it was just fortunate he hadn't looked in the fridge, where she kept a small emergency supply... then the monster within coolly informed her that he could last several months if she wanted it. Lisa closed her eyes and clenched her fists until the horrific images her imagination conjured went away.

Calm again, she forced a slight smile on to her face and joined Mark on the couch. He held out a refilled glass, drained the last of his own drink and then opened a fat document folder on the table.

"All right, lets see what we have here..." Mark leafed through the pages. "Pretty boring really, some kind of auditing thing I guess. Jeez it's dark in here..."

Mark got up. "You've got the curtains closed! No wonder I can't see anything."

"I prefer it that way."

"Your call I guess..." He shuffled his feet. "Well, this stuff doesn't have to be ready for another week anyway, so..."

"I could have picked this up at the office when I got in," Lisa replied, leafing through a small collection of photographs in the file.

"True, but it was your birthday, and you always seem kinda lonely."

"I prefer it that way," she said again, her voice perhaps betraying a little less confidence in the sentiment.

"You know, if you ever want to get out somewhere... for a meal or something..."

"Maybe." He was asking her for a date, wasn't he? _Dammit... thirty minutes talking and she was already too close._

"How does Saturday night sound?"

"Maybe..." The worst part was, Lisa could feel herself wanting to say yes. She _was_ lonely, especially after moving to New York, so far from home... "I sleep during the day, so it would be more like breakfast. _If_ I go, that is."

"Okay, how about... eight?"

The sun was down at eight, so there was no danger... but there was still risk. She was framing 'no' as an answer in her mind, but some half-formed notion at the edge of her conscious distracted her. Something important... She didn't even hear herself speaking. "Eight sounds fine to me."

"Great, I'll come and pick you up. I know this great place..."

_What am I after?_ Lisa asked herself, after closing the door on Mark. She started flipping through the file again.

September 17 1999 

"Hey Lisa."

"Jules!" Lisa pulled her overweight bag on to her shoulder and ran across the hallway to where Julian was standing. He was wearing a brooch similar to hers; in fact, it seemed more like a badge when he wore it. Was it some kind of frat thing?

"Hey, you look great!" he said with a wan smile. Lisa thought he looked ill, even as he concluded his always brief complement. "Nice get up."

"Thanks." She blushed slightly as they walked through the school. In the weeks since she meeting Julian she had rapidly transformed her image. Gone were the bright orange dress, something she had worn in one form or another since elementary school, and the matching orange shoes. In their place, black cotton pants, a somewhat expensive black jacket that went all the way to her ankles and a black shirt with white ruffs at the collar and cuffs. It was the same style she had worn every day to school since then, and yet every time she saw Julian it was as if he saw her in it for the first time. _Quite charming,_ she thought dreamily.

She didn't wear pale make-up though, because she thought the white-skinned, black-clothed wannabe corpse was just _so_ clichéd...

Julian was talking again.

"... out in the woods most nights, in a huge old mansion. We get together and tell ghost stories and things. It's cool. You'd love it."

"Uh... love what? Sorry, I was miles away for a moment."

"Oh, yeah no problem." He did have a wonderful smile... "It's this gang I'm with. Some of them are older, but they're cool too. You wanna come out with us one night?"

"To the forest?" Her parents wouldn't like that much, would they? Then again, she _was_ fifteen now... "Okay, sounds fun. When?"

"Tonight, at midnight."

"Oooh I don't think I've ever stayed out that late before." Tough choice. On the one had it sounded thrilling, but then again she was devoted to her parents still, and probably would be for a long time to come. Still, a little adventure never hurt. What the hell, she could say she was staying at Janey's or something...

"Is that a yes?"

"Yes!"

"Great." He seemed hesitant, just for a moment, and Lisa wondered if he were hiding something. "I should tell you, we... _they_ have this little ritual when new members join, sort of like hazing."

"Do you know what it's like?"

"Me? Oh no, I've been told it's just sitting in a dark room while they try and scare you, but I've never been through it yet... I will be tonight. That's why I wanted you there."

"Oh Julian... that's so sweet." They reached the end of the corridor, Julian seemed to be hanging back a bit, as if he didn't want leave the building which caused Lisa to pause with her hand on the door. "Are you okay?"

"Oh, fine. I have a class just back there," he said, pointing over his shoulder. "I'll see you tonight by the lyceum, say nine o'clock?"

"Okay."

Julian retreated along the corridor and Lisa, a large smile on her face, pushed through the double doors of the school and out into the sunlight.


	2. End of Innocence

END OF INNOCENCE 

The day had rushed by, and now Lisa was standing in her room, making the final preparations for this... date? Was it a date? She had never really had such a thing whilst she had known Julian, not really. They were... friends. Nonetheless, she was making an effort. A hint of perfume, even some black eye-liner, despite the fact she normally despised make-up.

There was a knock at the door. Lisa pulled her boots from under the bed and started lacing them up. "Come in."

"Lisa..." Marge pushed the door open and stood in the narrow gap there. "You know I don't like you going out so late, especially at this time of year."

"Oh mom, I'm only going-"

"To the woods, with Julian." Marge folded her arms and cocked her head to one side. She wasn't frowning, but then she wasn't exactly smiling either, which frustrated Lisa.

"Ohhhh how did you know!"

"I know because I'm your mother."

"I suppose you're going to try and stop me," Lisa huffed. She started lacing her other boot, wishing she hadn't spoken so sharply.

"No, I'm not. It's obvious you've made up your mind about this... just..."

"Just what?"

"Be careful. Please."

"Oh mom..." Lisa stood up and gave Marge a quick hug. "I'll be fine, I promise."

"Of course you will dear," sighed Marge. "Lord knows, dressed up like that you'll probably scare off most advances..."

"Gee, thanks." They both stood, contemplating the floor for a moment. Lisa wondered if perhaps she was abandoning something tonight, some small part of her security...

"Oh, look at the time!" Lisa pulled her coat on. "Gotta go mom, bye."

She pushed past Marge and ran from the house. It was a long distance to the school, much further than it seemed on the bus, and she was worn out by the time she got to the Lyceum... she sat on the steps, panting quietly. In the distance, a clock started its slow chime towards nine.

She waited for about twenty minutes in the shadow of the Lyceum porch, watching the long grass billow in the breeze, and listening to the late-night sounds, crickets chirruping in the middle-distance, trees sighing. _Perhaps I've been stood up,_ she thought sadly, _which is just my luck really..._

Lisa didn't really know what caught her attention. Something, perhaps some fleeting shadow passed across vision, or a noise behind her... she tensed, turned, ready to fight...

"Julian! You scared me..."

"Eh, it's a livin... ready to go?" He held out a pale-skinned hand. As Lisa took it, she felt a strange lightness pass over her, and then all she wanted was to follow Julian wherever he went.

They walked, she didn't know how long for, in the dark between the ancient trees of the Springfield forests. It must have been for a long time though, because even the crickets were silent now, the only sound a distant, solitary owl calling out of the night. There was a mansion, darkened windows cold, uninviting. But the door was bright, and someone stood there, welcoming them.

Lisa felt as if she were surfacing through some thick, sludgy quagmire... she blinked.

"Where am I?"

"The mansion," said Julian, adding with a smile "You were half asleep all the way."

"That would explain a few things," Lisa replied uncertainly as they climbed the steps. Okay... what time is it?"

"About five minutes to midnight," said a cultured voice from the doorway. "Good evening, young Lisa. My name is Vlad."

"Vlad? If you don't mind me saying so, it sounds a bit clichéd to me..."

"Oh but of course, it isn't my real name," Vlad said, leaning forward with a conspiratorial grin to whisper in her ear. "My real name is Stanley, but don't tell anyone. Vlad seems so much more..."

"Romantic?"

"Of course!" Vlad replied, straightening up. "And now, would you care to enter our humble abode?"

The older man stood aside, beckoning them to enter the mansion and closing the door behind them with a loud squeal that made Lisa jump. She looked around slowly, attempting to get over her fright. They were standing in a long, wide hall, festooned with panelling and old pictures from which the faces of the past gaze impassively down. Stairs led up into the gloom of the second floor and numerous doors showed the way through the house.

"So Julian, this is to be our new member." Vlad was appraising her in the bright light, looking up and down, walking around. "Interesting... good physique, well toned... yes, excellent. Do you like ghost stories Lisa?"

"Who doesn't?" she replied.

"Oh, you'd be surprised..." he muttered with a distant stare. Lisa thought he looked almost sad... "Dear child, perhaps you should join us in the drawing room."

"Oooh, classy."

Lisa followed them into another, darker room, a room surrounded at the edges by numerous pale, black-clothed figures. They were sitting, or standing, Lisa counted probably twelve people and all of them were staring straight at her. She reached out for Julian's hand.

"Jules, this is..."

"Lisa. I have a small confession to make," he said.

"What?"

"That ritual I told you about? I've already... already been through it. Last night, in fact."

"You lied to me? Julian, I thought... what's going on?" Lisa tried to pull her hand away from his, but he gripped harder. "Julian that hurts!"

"I'm sorry Lisa," he said suddenly, letting her go. "I... I don't know what came over me."

"Please, Lisa, sit down." Vlad motioned to a chair near the centre of the room, somewhat offset, and then ushered Lisa towards it. "Lisa, I trust you know why you are here now."

"I _thought_ I was here to see Julian joining your club." Lisa was still standing by the chair. She saw something blaze up in Vlad's eyes, saw him turn toward Julian with something that sounded like a growl, primal and fierce and utterly terrifying. _I have to have imagined that..._

"You didn't tell her?" Vlad demanded. "Why?"

"You think she would have come if I told her?"

"Impudence!" Vlad swung a hand against Julian's head, knocking him sideways. "We always tell them! But..."

He looked back at Lisa, the anger fading from his eyes as quickly as it had appeared

"In this case, I think we can make an exception. Lisa. Please, do not be alarmed at my treatment of your friend, he still has a long way to travel up our... " a thin smile. "Hierarchy? When I learned of you from Julian, it was generally accepted that we should initiate you into our little fellowship. You are, to put it mildly, a very intricate young lady, very intelligent."

"You don't just tell ghost stories here, do you?" The suspicion in Lisa's voice was obvious.

"No, we do not just tell ghost stories. They are for the benefit of our fringe membership, but the core..." he motioned around the room. "The people you see here, are more, shall we say, actively involved?"

"Do you do community work, home help? Things like that?"

"In a manner of speaking, I suppose..." Vlad shrugged his shoulders and carried on. "Anyway, it is our wish that you would join us, Lisa. We need new membership. Will you join us?"

He pursed his lips, waiting for an answer. Lisa sat down slowly, thinking about it. _What harm could there be? Sitting in a dark room while they try to scare me, it's not like I've been in that situation before..._ She looked at the row of faces around the room. None had spoken yet, they just stared at her. In fact they were following her every move, their eyes locked on to her in some bizarre staring contest. That might be the only truly scary thing in the room...

"I... suppose it wouldn't hurt to try," she said eventually, slowly. Vlad smiled again, although there seemed to be a change in his eyes that Lisa couldn't quite interpret.

"Very well," he said. "We shall begin."

The lights went out, although Lisa couldn't recall anyone moving toward the switch. _Clever,_ she thought, with a brave smile. Some kind of computer control in charge of the lights, perhaps? If that was the best they could do...

_What was that?_ A strange, animalistic noise emitted from the darkness behind her. It was joined by several others, all around Lisa's position. Grunts, groans... some kind of growling... and then she could feel them drawing closer, the _things_... Lisa felt something brush against her arm.

"Okay I... I'm think I've passed now guys. Guys?" Lisa reached out into the darkness, touched something... a face. "Julian?"

The face pulled away from her. "I'm right here Lisa."

Lisa turned her head sharply, saw the vague outline of someone standing over her, almost human...

"What-" but before she could continue, they grabbed her. Lisa felt them tugging at her arms, her legs. She was thrown on to something hard; a table? Spidery fingers wrapped around her limbs, holding her against the cold, unyielding stone, trapping her.

"Julian!" A flash of white, a sharp needling pain in her neck, her arms, legs, and then it felt as if the life were being sucked from her. She fell into some kind of dream-world, spinning through the darkness, screaming... _mom!_

She was scared of the dark, she remembered now. Even if she thought, _knew_ she wasn't before, she remembered that she was. And she was scared of what lay through the door of her mind, through the dreams, in the darkest recesses of her unconscious. They lurked there... and now they came flooding out toward her, through the mists, taunting, jeering, destroying her.

Light.

She swam unknowing through the voices toward the tunnel of brightness, saw someone beckoning... then she was dragged away, back to the darkness.

_Am I dead?_ It was the only thought she had, and she clung to it. A voice, it was calling out a name. She remembered that it was _her_ name... so she moved toward the voice.

Falling upwards isn't as bad as falling down, but it still isn't fun. She shot through another light, and surfaced with a loud scream.

Marge burst through the bedroom door just as Lisa opened her eyes. She sat up, whimpered slightly and felt for the wounds she knew should be all over her... nothing. Not even a scratch. Sweat drenched her bed and her nightclothes, pooling in the hollows where sh56e had lain. She looked up at her mother.

"Lisa? What happened?"

"I..."

"Aww did you have a nightmare honey?" Marge sat down on the end of the bed. "You stayed out pretty late last night, that might have set something off."

"I was... what time is it?"

"Quarter to twelve."

"What?!? I'm late for school!" Lisa leapt from the bed and started gathering up her clothes. Marge just watched impassively. "Mom, help me or something!"

"Lisa..."

"I can't miss school!"

"Lisa!" Marge reached out and put a gentle hand on Lisa's shoulder. "It's Saturday."

"It is? I..." she fell on to the bed with an inane giggle. "I could have sworn it was Friday."

"Late nights do that to you. What were you doing last night anyway?"

Lisa sat up again, a slight frown resting on her brow.

"That's the strangest thing. I don't remember much of what happened..."

"Did you enjoy it?"

"I guess so. How did I get home anyway?"

"Oh, that friend of yours brought you back just after midnight. You were fast asleep. It was so cute..."

"Mom, I am not cute!"

"Whatever you say dear. Come on, lunch will be ready soon. You'd better get dressed." Almost exactly on cue, the rising smell of beef stew wafted through the door from the kitchen. Marge perked up her nose. "I'd better get downstairs and look after that. Shouldn't be long now."

Marge stood, and was gone, leaving Lisa alone in her room again. She started to get dressed, stopping once or twice to scratch an annoying itch on her neck.

She wore her usual garb, sans boots and coat; who needed a coat indoors? She picked up the brooch Julian had given her... and something, some fragment of a conversation slipped into her memory...

... changes will take time to assert. She will return to us soon enough.

_But what if she doesn't?_

She won't have a choice.

Lisa set the brooch down, wondering what the fragmentary sentences meant. Were they talking about her? Who was doing the talking? She suspected... that man...

... and then the overpowering scent of lunch reached her again. _Must be a strong stew, _she reasoned, licking her lips.

September 2 2006 

Blood, everywhere. She stumbled and slipped through pools of it, brushed her hands against great streaks of the stuff on walls, furniture, on everything. It drenched every inch of her clothes, stuck to her skin like crimson glue, matted her hair. And the screams... her sister wailing, her mother crying out in the dark somewhere, her brother screaming as the demon took his soul and always the blood running through everything, through the distorted images of her home and the knocking, knocking...

It was the persistent knocking again that eventually woke Lisa from the nightmare. She groggily pushed herself from the bed and staggered across the book-strewn floor of her bedroom, into her apartment and then the door. _Who... ?_

She remembered most of the conversation from last night. Mark, that puppy look in his eyes, asking her out on a date. A date with... but she couldn't bring herself to use that word. If only he knew.

Her hand resting on the doorknob, she realised with a pang of fear that she was hungry. Not just hungry in the normal human sense though... it was the Hunger, a feeling she hadn't had for months, that she had staved off as most people would ignore a rumbling stomach. It was a little like fasting... but she couldn't see him when she was like that, could she? And then there was another knock at the door.

"Just a second!" Lisa tried to ignore the saliva building up in her mouth, ran to the kitchen and yanked the door off the fridge. There, on a shelf in the door, were seven red vials. Without hesitating she took one, smashed the top and downed it in a single swallow.

Sated, she returned to her bedroom and dressed herself, before moving once again to the door, this time opening it. Mark was standing on the other side, holding a bunch of roses. Big, red roses...

"Flowers?" She took them from his hands, held one to her nose. "They're beautiful..."

"You might want to put them in water. The only way I could afford them was to buy an out of date batch." Mark shuffled slightly. "So uh... shall we go?"

"Let me just get my coat." Lisa, still holding the roses, retreated into the gloom of her apartment, returning a moment later with a black leather ankle-length coat.

"Oh very nice Lisa, very gothic. Looks like the one Keanu Reeves wore in Matrix Two..."

"It does? I didn't see that film."

"Pity, it was good. Oh well, my car is downstairs." Mark held out his arm to Lisa and she took it. "Ooh, you're cold..."

"I know."

They travelled down by the stairs, Lisa claiming the lift wasn't too reliable these days. In reality she didn't want to be in such an enclosed space with Mark, not while she was still feeling a faint pang in the pit of her stomach. There was still the car to negotiate...

Outside was cold. Not especially such, since it was only September, but enough to make them both shiver at the chill. Light rain drizzled over the street, drifting underneath the yellow streetlamps in a bright cone of mist. They walked the short distance to Mark's car, a pale blue Ford Orion with a dent in the left wing.

He opened the door for her, then climbed into the driver's seat. Inside the car was warm and dry, smelling of worn leather, air freshener and stale cigarettes, almost masking the other, deeper, more pungent aroma. Lisa cracked her window open as they pulled away from the sidewalk, out into the quiet back streets of the city.

"Mind if I smoke?" Mark asked, holding up a box of Springfield Cammels, something few people had even heard of outside Lisa's home state.

"Don't mind me." She relaxed as the tobacco drowned out every other sensation. "I couldn't help noticing your brand."

"Oh, yeah... my cousin sends them out to me. Picked it up while I was working in- holy... Moron!" Mark made an obscene gesture at the swerving driver opposite them, the other car jumping the lights with a squeal of tires, sending a fine spray into the air.

"I used to live there," Lisa said, emotionless.

"Really? What city?"

"Springfield. At one point I thought I might end up staying there my whole life..."

"Small town blues eh? Well, if it's any consolation, you sound native."

"I pick up accents easily."

They drove the rest of the way in silence, Mark puffing contentedly on his cigarette, Lisa trying not to absorb too much tar. Not that it mattered, but she still held on to the health-conscious attitude instilled in her by her mother.

The streets were unusually quiet, even Broadway. There was a strict curfew in force for probably half the population of the city now, which meant they couldn't enjoy life as much as they used to. Lisa, being a government employee, was exempt from the curfew, and felt guilty for being so. But it did have its advantages...

"Where are we going?" she asked, as Mark seemed to be pulling up to the side again. "You can't actually be considering taking me to that 'palace', can you?"

"What's wrong with it?"

"It looks so expensive..." Lisa gazed out at the huge length of glass, covering almost half a block. The restaurant was thronged by people. "This is one of the most exclusive restaurants in the city, how are we supposed to get in?"

"Well, there's the catch, you see. Government employees can get in places most people can't." Mark stepped out of the car. Lisa, annoyed, didn't wait for him to open her door, instead popping it open herself and chasing him out.

"Yes but that only applies to people like the mayor."

"Yup. In this case, being related to the owner has it's benefits too..."

Lisa stopped to think about that. Related to the owner? He was just full of surprises, and she told him so.

"Relax, this is the last one. Probably."

"I suppose this is where you got that fizz from as well," she said as they linked arms. "Sounds kinda cheapskate to me."

"You kiddin me? I paid for that entirely myself! I meant it when I said I wouldn't be eating for a week. All I have is rice crackers and cheese at home, and not much cheese at that. Speaking of money, how can you afford to eat out all the time? You're hardly rolling in it..."

"I know a place." Lisa hoped he wouldn't press too hard.

"Oh yeah, where?"

"You wouldn't like it. It's... ethnic."

"I love foreign food. Hey, Paulo!"

"Marco, my friend!" The doorman gently moved a couple aside for Mark and Lisa to enter. "You have a lady friend tonight ah? Good! I always said you needed company!"

"Jeez, would you keep it down bub? I'm _trying_ to show the lady a good time here."

"Of course of course, my apologies friend." Paulo patted Mark on the back and let them through the door, turning back to the throng outside. "Hey, hey! What do I say about climbing the ropes ah? Get off before I call shotgun wielding thugs on you!"

"Paulo," Mark said once they were inside.

"You're not some kind of Mafia guy are you?"

"What, like the godfather? Nah... school friends, that's all."

An usher appeared and led them to a table near the window, closely followed by a second usher with a menu and wine list.

"Would madam care to order a starter?" he droned in a curious mix of Italian and English accents. "Perhaps a drink?"

Lisa looked at Mark, who was pouring over the wine list. "I..."

"Two glasses of the house red," Mark said momentarily. "And we'll skip the starters. I'll take a medium steak, extra mushrooms, double salad pepper and some of those fancy parsley things you do and... Lisa?"

"Steak. Very rare steak. In fact I'll have two, no salad, no side orders... and a celery stick too please."

"Excellent choice madam." The usher collected up their menus and was gone, to be replaced almost immediately by a waiter with their drinks. Mark took a sip of his wine once the waiter was gone and fixed Lisa with a penetrating stare.

"Your records have you down as a vegetarian."

"I am. Technically..." she felt herself blushing under his gaze. "What are you doing looking at my records anyway? I thought they were supposed to be private."

"They are. Technically." He smirked. "So..."

"It's a condition I have. I don't want to talk about it."

"Okay..." Mark took another taste of his wine. "So what brought you too New York? I know it can't be the pay..."

Lisa dipped her finger into her glass, watching it disappear beneath the shiny vermilion surface of the liquid. She drew it out again and let the wine drip from her finger... "Personal issues."

"Oh let me guess, you don't want to talk about it."

"Good guess."

"Whether or not you want to talk about it, I'm going to wheedle it out of you anyway. Boyfriend trouble?"

"Why the hell should you care?" _God, he's so annoying..._

"I'll take that as a maybe." Mark winced at the withering glare Lisa gave him. "Okay okay, I'll stop..."

They both drank, both stared at each other in silent annoyance. Eventually it was Lisa that broke the rapidly forming ice.

"How do you know the owner of this place?"

"Eh, he's my uncle. When my Dad moved to Japan for some reason of his own I ended up living with my Uncle and his family, which meant I had to adapt to having six sisters from being an only child. I guess he thought I would go into the business after him, and I think he gives me these free meals in some foolish attempt to bring me back into the fold."

"Doesn't he ever threaten to stop? Considering you don't seem all that interested in this."

"Nooo... he never has. I think it's become such a tradition he almost can't bear the thought of giving up the chance I might change my mind."

"Sounds pretty sad."

"Yeah, well in the end it'll have to be one of his kids that takes over. He would have preferred a son to do it, but he don't have any choice, so... y'know."

"Yeah. 'Tradition.'" Lisa swirled her glass, simply for something to do. "How long is our meal supposed to be?"

"Should be here by now actually... oh right on the button." Mark pointed over Lisa's shoulder toward the kitchen, where a small team of groupies seemed to be following the waiter with his trolley. They had instruments. "Oh no, Paulo... he got the band in! I knew he would."

Mark stood up and wandered through the tables, retrieving his wallet as he neared the musicians. They seemed to haggle for a moment, and then Mark pointed them to another table, handing the violinist a couple of bills as he did so. He returned just as the waiter was laying out his plate.

"I trust everything is to your satisfaction sir?"

"Oh, perfectly. Thanks Juan."

The waiter, Juan, smiled slightly and laid out Lisa's plate with a flourish. "Madam. Please consider a complimentary trip to the salad bar if you are still hungry after eating. The tomatoes are quite succulent today..."

"Thanks..." Lisa waited until Mark sat down. She attacked the first steak with some ferocity, giving the man opposite just a little scare.

"Woah, you hungry or something?"

"Oh yeah," Lisa said with her mouth full. She sucked harshly at the meat and sighed. "I just... mmmm this is delicious... I just haven't eaten much in a while. Small meals."

"You're telling me..."

Mark seemed too intrigued to eat his own meal. He watched Lisa as she worked through the first steak, which was so rare the blood was literally dripping on to the plate. Eventually he got bored and started on his own meal. "For a vegetarian you seem to like meat a lot."

"Condition," Lisa mumbled, then swallowed. "I guess I've gotten used to the taste again."

"What made you become one in the first place? It must have been something... interesting, to say the least."

"Oh it was when I went to a petting zoo when I was eight. I couldn't really think about eating those cute little animals..." she sliced another large chunk off the steak and held it up on her fork. "I mean... I do it now simply because I have absolutely no other choice, but I wouldn't want to."

"How did your parents react?"

"Oh..." _Hm, well the topic had to come up eventually._ "My mom was okay, but my dad... he was kinda nuts. I don't think he ever accepted it."

"Hmm... do you still talk to them?"

"No..."

"Maybe you should. It might help-"

"They're dead. My whole family is dead." She put her fork down and folded her hands together across the place. "Okay, you wanted to know why I moved out here? Well it's because I lost my entire family in one night, because I had to give up my entire life and all this through the actions of one man."

Mark stopped mid-chew and let his jaw hang slack, his fork half-way between his mouth and the plate beneath him. He swallowed, and took another rather larger swig of his drink.

"So you're out here to..."

"Find him, yes."

I wont ask what you're going to do after that."

"Good choice." Well Lisa my girl, you've told him. He probably has six months to live, tops...

Mark didn't seem too agitated at what he was hearing. In fact, after the initial shock of the revelation, he seemed, to Lisa, to be acting more normal then ever. At least, he was still eating... She didn't want to eat any more herself. She felt sick, remembering why she was here...

Mark said something, but she didn't hear him first time.

"I said, what exactly happened? To your family, I mean."

"I really don't want to talk about it."

"Lisa-"

"I really don't!" She punched the table. "Look, just drop it. Please. I might already have put your life in danger just by telling you this much."

"Right, now you're just being melodramatic."

As if I wasn't before... Lisa sighed and rubbed her temples. "Look, Mark, you're a nice guy. Really... and I have to admit I like you, but I... I..."

"Lisa." Mark smiled and laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. "You're tired, let me take you home."

"I'm not tired, I only just got up for crying out loud."

"Let me take you home anyway." His hand didn't move. "Don't make me insist, because I'm not very assertive in that kind of situation, and I just end up making a fool of myself."

Lisa didn't move, nor did she try to remove his hand. What harm could it do? She thought... and then the slow realisation about what had happened the last time she had that thought... Oh but that was different.

Wasn't it?

They drove back to her apartment in silence, along the unnaturally quiet streets, through the haze of the rain. It always rained these days, something to do with the climate apparently... the new theory was global cooling, something that had last held sway back in the seventies... apparently they were heading for a new ice-age. It didn't matter much to Lisa though; she didn't plan on living out the next year, if she could help it, let alone living out the next thousand...

As they turned into her street Mark pulled up short and stopped near the corner, jerking Lisa awake although she didn't realise she had been sleeping. Mark stubbed out the cigarette he'd been smoking and switched off the lights.

"What's the matter?" Lisa narrowed her eyes when Mark put a finger to his lips. He pointed down the street to her apartment building. There was a van outside.

"I don't get it," she whispered. "What's so important about a van?"

"Check out the guy standing outside." Lisa looked at him.

"I don't..."

"He has a gun. You can see it bulging under his jacket... and look up at your apartment."

Lisa looked up a little and saw a light shining through her curtains. A shadowy figure moved across the window, from the direction toward the kitchen and her books. "Ah..."

"I think the police should look in on this, don't you?"

"No!" She blinked under his startled eyes. "I mean... they won't get here. We should just-"

"You stay here." Mark ran off into an alley just down the road.

Like hell, Lisa thought, and got out of the car. She found him in seconds crouching at the corner of another alley.

"What the hell are you doing here Lisa?"

"The same thing you're doing. Trying to get close enough to see who they are and what they're after."

"You..." He scratched his face, cocking his head slightly to look up at her.

"That is what you're doing, isn't it?"

"Well... yeah, I guess."

"If you turn out to be a cop or something I swear..." What? She couldn't threaten to kill him. If he was a cop and she did kill him, she'd have no chance of finding Julian. He didn't move like a cop, and he didn't smell like one either, and no self respecting fuzz would be seen dead in a car like that unless they were really deep under cover...

"You have a gun don't you?" she asked.

"Not now!" he whispered harshly. "All right, come on, but stay behind me."

Mark turned the corner and ran down the alley. Lisa followed him until they were within a stones throw of the apartment block's rear entrance. Mark crept up to the door and slowly pushed it aside. There was no one behind it. They both stepped through the door and into the dark hallway leading to the rear stairs.

"Your apartment is on the third floor right?"

"You've been here twice and you can't remember? Wait, never mind... yes it is."

He shuffled toward the stairs a little. "Okay, you wait here and... I'll just not bother talking at all shall I?"

Mark threw his hands up in frustration and ran after Lisa, who was already turning the corner at the top of the stairs.

Lisa found one of them just leaving her apartment. She ran forward, grabbed the guy and threw him back through the door; he as the last one to leave, and she slammed the door behind them. The man crawled to his knees and tried to stand. Lisa kicked him in the face, wincing. It wasn't fun.

"This is my apartment," she said firmly.

"Ah shit!" The man dragged himself up on the windowsill and tried to dodge out of Lisa's way. She grabbed him.

"Why are you here?" she asked, holding him by the nose.

"Shit!" he shouted again. "Let me go, please!"

"From the way you're acting I can tell you know what I am," she said with malice. "Now tell me before you know what."

"Ah! We were after a book, some kind of big book! I just work for this guy y'know, I don't do nothing bad I swear! Now please, let me go!"

"Did you find the book?"

"Enrico, he took it downstairs!"

Lisa dropped the man roughly and looked out of the window. The van was still there, the guard still standing outside. Another man emerged from the building beneath her, carrying the book under his arms. Lisa opened the window.

"Woah, Lisa?" Mark burst through the door, saw the man lying on the floor with a bloodied nose, saw Lisa standing by the open window. She looked back at him. "What-"

"RICO! RICO SHE'S COMING! SH-" the thief was silenced by a sharp kick from Lisa. She gave Mark one last glance, then stepped on to the windowsill and leapt out into the night.

It was only three floors. She broke her ankle, but that would heal. She broke the guard's neck at the same time, which was something she would have to live with for a while longer. Rico was already diving into the back of the van when she landed. The vehicle pulled away with a sharp squeal of tires and fan belt, leaving a whiff of grey smoke in the damp night air. The number plate was dirty, she noted with a sour grimace. Unreadable.

And the book was gone. Slowly, she turned and limped back into the apartment, leaving the body at the side of the road. Around here it would probably be collected by the garbage men before the police ever heard about it.

Mark confronted her when she reached her apartment again.

"Okay, you've got a lot of explaining to do, and I don't want any of that bull about some 'condition'."

"Whatever." Lisa sat down, working the last stiffness out of her ankle. The other thief was nowhere to be seen, and she assumed he had slipped out after her jump. "Aw hell I suppose it doesn't matter any more. They got the only clue I had to finding him anyway..."

"That book you were talking about?"

"Yeah. It's a list, sort of a membership directory for this big ol organisation."

"But I saw that guy carrying it. That thing was ancient!"

"Yup." She rubbed her arm. Might have broken that too... "You've heard the old cliché 'don't judge a book by its cover,' haven't you?"

"I guess... but that doesn't explain how that thing could be a phone list or whatever. Certainly not how you got hold of it."

Lisa sighed and leant back into the deep sofa. "Well I suppose I haven't been entirely honest about myself either."

"Well I figured you couldn't be telling the whole truth. I know it sounds trite, but no one does around here."

"Not even you?"

"I guess not," he said with a lopsided grin. "But you go first."

"Okay, to start with... I killed my family."

"Ah shit..." Mark sat down, the grin fading from his face. "Do I want to know the rest before I call the cops?"

"Do you want to go crazy wondering what it was?"

"I guess not..."

So she told him.


	3. Chapter 3

**September 21 1999**

The sun felt bright, too bright, and too hot on her neck as she slouched home through town. Missing the bus had been the last horrid event in a truly horrid day, when everything and everyone had seemingly colluded against her. Things smelled different, looked different... she couldn't seem to read people in the way she was used to, which was something Lisa had always prided herself on. And to top it all off, she had a double toothache in her upper jaw. So it was no surprise that Lisa was irritable when she got home.

The sound of the doorbell jarred against her hearing, which seemed to be so much more sensitive to high-pitched noises. Perhaps she was ill... it would explain the shivers. And when she had looked in the mirror this morning her skin had been pale, and yet somehow very dark as well, as if her flesh had become necrotic underneath that thin, translucent surface.

The door opened wide and Marge loomed out at her, yelling something incomprehensible at her face. Lisa growled under her breath and tried to concentrate. If she listened hard, she could make out the words...

"... hope you're not feeling too hot in all that black clothing. Come on, you don't look so good, you should get out of that sun."

Lisa allowed herself to be led up to her room. She lay down on her bed whilst a Marge busied herself opening windows and drawing the curtains.

"You look like you've caught the sun a bit, your neck is bright red! And your face... oh dear, I think I should call a doctor."

"No, mom," Lisa mumbled, yawning. "I'll be fine. I just need... sleep..."

"That's a very good idea. I'll be downstairs, if you feel any worse just holler."

Yeah right. Lisa closed her eyes and settled back into the bed. But she couldn't sleep. There was a scent lingering in the air, something new... something inviting. Tasty, in fact. She inhaled the pungent aroma and found that she was salivating. Over what, she had no idea, but she had to have it...

Lisa rolled over and the smell got stronger. It was coming from her own bed? What in the world... and then another, stronger scent wafted through the air. She pulled herself to her knees and curled over, hugging herself down.

"Lisa?" It was Bart. He was the stronger scent.

"Bart, leave the room. Please."

"I-I just came to see if you were-"

"Leave Bart." She let her arms go limp and slowly pulled her body upright. The stench was overpowering now, commanding her to act. "Please... Bart, leave now."

"But-"

"Now!" she thundered. She placed one foot on the floor and began to turn slowly, then the other foot followed until she was facing her brother.

"You okay Lis?" Bart hesitated. It cost him his life.

Lisa found her vision clouding, turning red, and then suddenly she was no longer Lisa. She became something else, and the little part that was still Lisa Simpson had to watch in mute horror as the Hunger took over. She... it launched itself at Bart with all the ferocity of a tiger pouncing on its prey. He screamed once, in shock at being knocked over. Once again, louder this time as his neck was slashed open and the demon sucked out his life.

Lisa came too, holding Bart in her arms, covered in his blood. She was crying. His breathing was shallow, weak. Too weak... She shook him. "Bart, wake up. Please wake up..."

He gagged and coughed up a few spots of blood. Then his eyes fluttered open. "Lis..."

"Oh god Bart I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry..." but his eyes closed. "No Bart, no don't die. Don't die! Bart!"

One last breath. His eyelids opened again, partway, but not to let him see. His eyeballs had rolled back into his head. His body went limp in Lisa's arms and she had to drop him...

"Bart..."

She looked down. Her hands were covered in blood, his blood. She wiped a trickle from her mouth and found more blood. Blood in her mouth. In a final brief moment of sanity she realised what she had become and it horrified her. Why me? She thought. Why? How? No...

Julian...

... and the hunger returned.

When she awoke again, Lisa couldn't recall much more than the image of her brother lying in her arms, his skin deathly white, save for the deep red welt on his neck. In the darkness she began to feel her way around. Her hand touched up against something cold, but yielding. In the distance, a vague blue glow cast though a doorway, to the lounge, where the TV was flickering static.

Lisa stood up carefully and looked around. The kitchen... that's where she was, the kitchen. What had happened? After Bart's death, she couldn't remember a thing... no, she could remember. Vague images, scenes... sounds... the screams... her mother had been in the kitchen...

She looked down. Marge looked back up at her, eyes vacant, accusing... the wound Lisa would come to know so well on her neck. There was a knife near her hand. Lisa, bereft of emotion, stepped around the body and into the lounge. Homer lay on the floor, shotgun in hand... lord knows where he got it from. He had shot her... in the stomach... and yes, her shirt was shredded. But there was no wound. Not now anyway.

It was when she found Maggie that Lisa finally started to mourn. Her own sister, barely eight years old, lay face down in a pool of congealing blood at the bottom of the stairs, where Lisa had thrown the corpse after... after...

Oh my god...

She returned to the kitchen and tried to slash her wrists. It hurt, but the wounds almost instantly healed each time and eventually she gave up out of frustration, hurling the knife against the wall. After a moments thought, she picked up the phone and called the police. Then she went up to her room, changed her clothes and started packing.

She found the brooch lying on the floor. Lisa picked up the small piece of silver and examined it for a moment, then dropped it to the floor and turned to leave the room. But then she paused again... It was Julian that caused this, she thought angrily. He'll pay...

She returned and retrieved the brooch. Then she picked up a picture of her family from the stairs, stepping gingerly around what was left of Maggie, and ran from the house.

**September 3 2006**

The early pre-dawn light was adding its faint glow to the street lights far below Lisa's window when she had finally finished relating her tale. Mark slouched in the couch, seemingly exhausted by the long night of listening, an empty beer bottle dangling from his hand, the pizza they had ordered lying half-eaten and cold in its box on the table.

Lisa stood by the window. The sky was overcast, bleak. It would be dull day, not bright at all. She could survive if she wore her shades, although there was little point in going out now she had no way of finding him.

"So that's my story," she said quietly, turning a little and glancing at Mark. "The important pieces anyway."

"You're trying to tell me you're a... a..."

"I hate that word. But yes, I am, even though I tried to deny it for a long time..."

"But they don't exist! They're a-a fairy tale, something you see in horror movies."

"I don't think so." Lisa let her mouth hang open on the 'o' just long enough for Mark to glimpse a pair of slightly elongated canines. He blanched.

"Jesus..." Mark rubbed his face, scratching at the shadowy stubble on his cheek. "What's it like? Being a... y'know..."

"Can you imagine what it's like to live without those most basic things that make you human?"

"You mean a soul?"

This drew a snort from Lisa, almost a laugh, but tempered by reality. Still got one buddy...

"I suppose you could call it that." She turned back to the window. "But no, there's so much more to it, beside that... don't take this the wrong way, but part of my mind considers you to be nothing more than an animal, something to be exploited, used. Humans," she said, a single tear forming. "Are prey."

"Obviously you're avoiding that quite well. I mean, the whole bite-"

"Don't, please. I had to give up my most cherished beliefs to 'cope', as you put it. I had to give up everything, but I refused to give them my humanity."

They were silent for a long time. Lisa pulled back her tears and drew the curtains. "I suppose you're going to run away now."

"Like hell I am. Lisa-"

"No... you should." She walked over and took his hands between her own. "You should run away now, before they link you to me. Now they know I had the book, they'll come for me, and anyone close to me... I can't let that happen again."

"But... I want to help you." Mark stood up, dropping the bottle to the floor. "I won't leave until you see that."

"Oh Mark you just don't get it do you? When they find us, they won't kill you. They'll make you into one of them!" One of us... she didn't add. "That's how they work."

"Oh." Mark wandered around slight, motioning vaguely in the air. "Well, you seem to be coping. How bad can it be?"

"Haven't you listened to a word I said?"

"Yes I have, as a matter of fact, and the least I've figured out is that it's not safe to go back to my apartment any more!" Mark paced across the room. "It's probably not safe to try and leave the city either, if this stuff really is true. In fact, the safest place for me right now is probably here."

Mark folded his arms and glared at Lisa. She glared back angrily, unwilling to admit he was right, that is was foolish for him to go anywhere else. It was too much of a risk. He's too close... again... Images of Bart flashed across her mind, lying in her arms... God help me...

"All right, you can stay on the couch tonight." Lisa hoped the emphasis on that last word would make him see how hard it was for her. "After that... we'll see."

"Thanks, I owe you one... I think..."

Lisa didn't say anything, instead walking to her room and closing the door, leaving Mark to settle in as best he could.

Much later, once she had deemed Mark to have fallen asleep, Lisa emerged from her room wearing a thick, dark coat. She also sported large black sunglasses and a hint of sun block lightened her already pallid skin to the point that she looked like death itself.

She stood in the room for a moment, staring uncertainly at the prone figure on her couch, sensing the first faint cramps of her torment returning. The old familiar scent was piling up in the room from his prolonged stay, building around her like an inescapable prison. Lisa held her breath and pushed through the thickening odour to the door.

In the corridor outside her room natural airflow continually refreshed the air, allowing her some space to breath. She kept her pace under control as she walked, managing not to look like someone fleeing from some unknown horror...

Lisa stepped gingerly out of the lobby, into the washed-out sunlight. It felt uncomfortably warm, perhaps the way most people would feel in the tropics or even a desert somewhere. She found herself wishing she could experience that, just once in her life. The thrill of foreign climes, days at the beach. Another dream dashed.

Walking down the street, bundled as if against the cold, Lisa prayed to whatever gods might be listening that she would find her tormentor. First, that meant finding the book, and then finding out who Julian really was, which was why she was out now instead of waiting until it was dark again. She had spent too much time explaining her life to Mark, time she could have spent tracking the animals who had invaded her home.

Normally Lisa would have baulked at the phrase, but she felt these people deserved it, working as they did with something so evil... she had no idea where they would have gone, though, loath as she was to admit it, and she had no contacts in New York, no one she could trust, save Mark and he was locked in her apartment.

And so, eventually, Lisa found herself in front of a police station. She pushed through the throng of humanity, the petty thieves, hookers, lowlifes. She found the logical, rational part of her brain actually teaming up with the animal, telling her she could become some kind of vigilante, 'disposing' of this criminal element and solving her own problems at the same time. She dismissed the thought as she approached the duty sergeant.

"May I help you ma'am?" He smiled, although Lisa could see a little uncertainty in his face. Everyone got that around her, around people like her. It was something to do with the different smell, although humans couldn't consciously sense something as subtle as that.

"Uh, yes, please. Someone broke into my apartment last night."

"Ookay..." he took out a pen. "Did you phone this in at all?"

"No, I... didn't have chance to do that."

"Right." The man was making notes. "Did they steal anything?"

"Yes. A book." More notes. "It was a very important book, I was using it for some research for the governor."

A little white lie now and then doesn't hurt does it? Besides, she was already far beyond any kind of salvation, if she had ever hoped for any in the first place. More notes, perhaps a little more urgent now. Her mentioning the governor had alerted the man, informed him that if something wasn't done, his job might be on the line.

"Okay ma'am, if you wait over there we'll send someone down to speak to you, ask you a few questions." He was pointing to a chair in the corner, next to some tramp shaking his head and hands rhythmically. It was the only free seat in the entire room. "Don't worry ma'am, he's harmless."

"I'm not worried." Lisa stepped through the crowd and sat down next to the man. He seemed to be mumbling something, although she couldn't make it out and, frankly, her mind was already numbing under the pervading stench of humanity around her. It made her sick; more so, knowing that she could have been among them, if only...

"DEMON!" The sound shocked Lisa, the voice, accusing... it was the tramp, sitting next to her. Only now he wasn't sitting, he was standing over her, holding some kind of cross. He shouted again. "Demon! Fiend! Get back from me, Satan!"

She shuffled away from him, just a little. He was drawing a few stares now, boring into them both, making her blush under her sun block so much she almost looked human again.

Now the staff sergeant was standing over them both. "All right Tom, I gave you a warning about this. Any more and you end up in the slammer, that's what I said isn't it?"

"She's a demon! She's evil! She-"

"Tom! Don't make me arrest you for a breach of the peace." The sergeant placed a calming hand on the old man's shoulder and called another officer over to lead him away. He looked down at Lisa with obvious concern. "I'm sorry ma'am, he just an old cook, but he used to be an officer and we... well, y'know..."

"I understand. Thank you."

"I think someone will see you now, if you'll come with me upstairs." He led her through a small door into the back of the station, up some stairs. It was darker here, quieter, a little more comfortable for her now, although it was hard to see where she could be comfortable...

There were interviews with pert young assistants, fresh faced recruits working up the career ladder. They asked the same boring questions, how many were there, what did they take, what time was it. Routine, to a point; Lisa had never gone through it before. Until now, she had relied on simply running when they found her, hiding away until they got bored and moved on. Now, though, she couldn't hide until she had the book.

She eventually found herself in a small office, sitting opposite a stereotypically large detective with a faint smile on his kindly face. His name was Detective Marlow, or so the sign on his door had said. Marlow's eyes, though, betrayed his real state of mind. They were cold, hardened by years on the streets. He widened his smile a little.

"Coffee?" There was a pot perking away in the corner of the room.

"No, thanks."

"I always like fresh coffee in the morning," he said, standing up pouring himself a cup. "Wakes me up, keeps me moving. You look like you could use some."

Marlow sat down without waiting for Lisa's response and flipped open a thin file. Within was the compiled, condensed and sorted account from the various interviewers Lisa had faced earlier, neatly typed out on three sheets of paper. She had a file. How nice.

"Well Ms... Simpson." He perused the documents. "Our boys reported a body outside your apartment building at about six this morning, his neck was broken. Do you know anything about that?"

"He fell from my window." What else would they ask about? She thought bitterly. Of course, he was just doing his job...

"He fell, and you didn't try to do anything?"

"I wasn't able to."

The man nodded to himself and made a note in the file. "Okay, you claim a grey van with an obscured licence plate was used as a getaway vehicle. Did you recognise the van?"

"No, but I would if I saw it again."

"Well it seems like you're in luck, or the filing boys are unusually efficient today. A grey van of the kind out describe was found illegally parked outside a lock-up in Queens. So that's that..." he pointedly slapped the file closed, only to open it again in order to look at another sheet of paper.

"Will you be able to find the book?"

"Probably. Hmm, this is interesting you know... we have, apparently, a witness who claims a woman jumped from a third floor window of your building and landed on one of the men, killing him outright. Care to explain that?"

Lisa shrugged and glanced away from the detective, watching the steam rise from the coffee pot, thankful for the smell masking everything else in the room. The detective closed the file again.

"Probably a bum witness I guess." He poured himself another cup of coffee. "Well, in that case, we'll see what we can come up with. Are you sure you don't want some coffee? Jamaican."

"Thank you, but no. Do you mind if I have the address for that lock-up?" Lisa held out her hand, making the request an order without saying so. The detective slipped his hand inside the file and pulled out a sheet of paper, handing it to Lisa. "Thank you."

Lisa folded the paper and tucked inside her coat, turning on her heel to leave the room. But then she heard the detective, apparently sensing something about her, pushing his chair back and standing up behind her.

"Miss, although I have no idea why you've taken that address, please bear in mind there are a lot of cops down there, with itchy fingers all of them. Don't do anything stupid, okay?" He reached into his jacket and withdrew a small square card. "If you need anything, just phone me okay?"

Lisa took the card and looked at it for a moment before dropping it into her pocket.

"I can take care of myself," she replied, opening the door. She heard Marlow huff slightly as she closed the door again. Perhaps it was a cough. Perhaps he knew more then he was letting on... but then, he would hardly believe she was a... would he? No one did, did they?


	4. Departure

**DEPARTURE**

**September 25 1999**

The forest was incredibly dark at night, so much that she couldn't see more than a few feet into the gloom between the trees. Even during the day it would be very dark here, almost twilight. A perfect habitat for nocturnal creatures.

Lisa wondered why she was analysing like this. Perhaps it was an attempt to direct her mind away from her predicament. Perhaps she was already becoming something far different. All speculation... she didn't know what was happening to her, or why. She knew how, that was it, and the how was Julian and his friends. That was why she was here, in the forest at night.

She had spent a few days hiding, foraging for food at night when she could move freely, sleeping during the daytime wherever she could find a spot. When she wasn't searching for food or shelter, she found herself crying, unable to sleep.

There had been no mention of her family in the newspapers she had found lying around. Evidently the police didn't know what to make of it, and had simply covered the entire thing up. After three days... nights... she had gone back to the house and found it cleaned, emptied, with a 'for sale' sign tacked on the front lawn. Nothing of her old life was left.

Next door she could hear laughter from the Powers on one side and the Flanders on the other. They probably didn't know what had happened either, and to turn up on either doorstep would cause too much comment.

Although she could almost imagine Homer egging her on to the Flanders... it would be just like him to set her on Ned, in some perverse act of revenge for every imagined slight... no, she could feel it building up again. So Lisa had run away again, and ended up here.

She had a little difficulty finding the house, although she did well for someone who had only been there once before. A faint light was shining from the study and, as she approached the edge of the overgrown garden, the door was flung open and Vlad stepped out. Julian was just behind him.

"She should be here by now," said the younger one, fidgeting. "You said she would be here."

"And I was telling the truth, she is here, nearby. Give her time Parshivets. She will have to come to us eventually, because she will not be able to resist. After..." Vlad's hand wind milled on his wrist as if he were searching for something. "After certain ceremonies have been performed. Oh you remember don't you boy? The initiation rites, severing links... in fact, she has probably done that already. So, she is here. She will be with us soon."

Lisa crouched in the undergrowth and listened to their continuing conversation, her heart turning to stone as she did so. So it was their fault. Well they won't get the satisfaction of seeing me in their fold, she thought angrily. A vague idea was forming in her mind though... Lisa found she had greater clarity now as the 'baggage' humans carried around with them slowly fell from her mind. It was simultaneously liberating and distressing...

She waited until they had re-entered the house and crept away into the forest. She had plans now. She knew what she would do.

The next night, she returned to the house and tossed a note through the window, tied to a large stone. Hopefully it hit one, she thought grimly. The Lisa scampered off into the darkness. It would have been fun to see their reactions, but that might have endangered her more than she already was...

Lisa had spent a great deal of time composing the note, although it had been hard writing it entirely in the dark. Dear Julian, please forgive the way this letter reaches you, it read. I'm afraid I can't see you ever again. I hate you. I hate your kind and because of this I hate myself. I must leave, so I can find a way of destroying all of you for what you have done to me and my family. Goodbye Julian. Maybe next time I see you it will be in the hell I create for you. Lisa.

After that, she ran away. They didn't follow her, whether through luck on her part or a belief on their part that she would return one day Lisa didn't know, but it was enough. She spent the next few nights wandering Springfield, perhaps saying goodbye to her old life, always wary of the danger just around the corner. She could smell them, she realised. It was an odd sensation...

Eventually she left the city and trekked north, out of the state. It was the only way she would be able to survive, running away from them before they had a chance to act against her. Lisa's new life, if you could call it that, began.

**September 3 2006**

"I don't think I'll get a day job anywhere, not with my qualifications."

"You can't have a night job now. Night-time is when they come out, you'd be in danger."

"More danger than I am here?" Mark knocked back the last dregs of his lager and sat back. He looked ill, Lisa thought, and he was drinking far too much. "Look, there's nothing I can get."

"What about your uncle? He's practically offering you that job on a plate..." Lisa was standing near the door, holding her coat and waiting for the sun to go down. It shouldn't be long now... She had business.

"Eh, maybe. I just don't want to be a cook," he moped. "I wanted to be a pilot..."

"Fat chance." She moved toward him slightly, but he backed away and turned into the kitchen. "Look, I have to go out again. I'm locking you in, so don't answer the door for anybody."

"How will you get in?"

"Duh, I have a key," she said, jangling a bunch in front of his face. "It is my apartment."

"Yeah well, what if I want to order a pizza or something?"

"I bought food while you were sleeping." Lisa walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge door. "Plenty enough to last quite a while, although I wasn't quite sure what to get..."

"Don't go shopping that often, right?" Mark forced a smile as he looked through the contents of the fridge. His hand came to rest on one of the door shelves, on a special medical container. He opened it. "What the hell?"

"Like I said." Lisa reached out and pushed the lid of the container back into place, sealing up the vials within. "You wouldn't like it..."

"You got that right. Oh well, junk food is food I guess." He pulled out a box of cheeses. "Nifty."

Lisa stepped back out of the kitchen, leaving Mark mulling over the food as she made her way out of the apartment. The door locked with a loud click. Wouldn't be enough to keep them away if they came, but she doubted that would happen tonight.

The lock-up was a dilapidated, run down old warehouse near the railroad, so dark and brooding it almost made Lisa laugh at the cliché. Almost. She walked around it twice before entering, looking for anything unusual. Years of surviving in dumps like this had taught her a thing or two about caution, and she wasn't about to change that.

Fortunately there was no apparent danger. Lisa let herself relax just a little and wandered back to the front door, trying to look like a passer-by to whoever might be watching. A single police cruiser passed by but that was it.

I front of the lock-up, a grey van stood gathering ice in the cold night, the same one that had carried Enrico the thief away from her before. The police were probably waiting for a tow truck. She was closer. Lisa opened the door and looked inside.

The van reeked of fear, a tang of iron adding a familiar flavour to the air within, and underneath all of that the sense of others. Them. Lisa stepped inside the van and looked around. The van seemed clean, but... yes, in the corner she spotted a few rusted flecks on the floor.

She didn't feel sorry for Rico. Pity was an emotion she lacked, either through hard experience or perhaps as a side-effect of her affliction. She knew, however, that he was now probably dead or one of them; for his sake, she hoped it was the former as she climbed from the van and investigated the lock-up door.

They had been here too. The door wasn't locked, so she pushed it open and peered into the gloom within. It was empty. Near the back of the warehouse a thing beam on moonlight thrust down from a hole in the roof of the warehouse, shining on a low trestle table. Lisa cautiously stepped into the building, noting any possible escape routes or hiding places, made her way across to the table and looked. The book was lying on it, open, with a name underlined. A note lay on the table next to it.

Lisa picked up the book and looked at the name. Parshivets. It was the name Vlad had used talking to Julian in the forest, the night she had realised...

And then there was the note. She closed the book and looked down at the handwritten piece of paper.

"I'm still waiting, do you dare to find me," Lisa read aloud. It was signed with a single 'J'. She crumpled the note and dropped it on the floor.

"Bastard."

**September 4 2006**

Mark was sleeping on the couch when Lisa finally arrived home sometime near six in the morning, the book wrapped in a blanket under her arm. He stirred when she dropped the book on the kitchen table, but didn't get up.

Lisa unwrapped the book and flipped it open to the marked page again. Parshivets. She knew a smattering of Russian, having spent some time learning other languages between jobs. Roughly translated it meant Brat... it had been a nickname for Bart.

When she thought of her brother Lisa suddenly felt a gut-wrenching cramp descend to just below her solar-plexus. She hadn't fed for two days almost, and with the smell of... of prey filling the apartment, it was all she could do to hold herself back. With an almost exhausting physical effort she dragged herself to the fridge and retrieved two of the vials within, swallowing the contents of both in a single mouthful.

"Lisa?" Her back had been to the door. Lisa turned slowly, hiding the vials behind her back.

"What is it Mark?"

"I... you sounded ill or something." He was peering at her face. "I just wondered... I'd better get back..."

Mark turned stiffly and left Lisa alone again. He saw something, she thought. Of course he knew what she was now, but still... withdrawing a hand from her face, not knowing she had even moved it there, Lisa felt something wet clinging to her fingertips. She wiped the gory dribble from the corner of her mouth and returned to the book.

Surprisingly, or perhaps not so, there was a phone number listed next to Julian's pseudonym where the majority seemed to be an address. Lisa recognised the code straight away. Her home state. Not only that...

He was in Springfield.

Lisa picked up the phone and dialled. There was a moment of silence for the connection, then the phone began to ring. After three, someone picked up.

"Hello?"

"Julian you bastard," Lisa whispered harshly.

"Why Lisa, how nice of you to call!" He sounded older, although not mature. "How's life in the big apple? I hope your friend Mark isn't causing too much trouble for you. Why yes, you see I know all about you Lisa. I've been following you ever since you threw that note through Vlad's window. Oh, you should see what I've done to the place now that he's gone, makes quite a wonderful nightclub out there in the middle of nowhere, despite the odd disappearance in the woods."

Lisa didn't say anything, deciding to let him do all the talking instead. His voice sounded almost the same, distorted as it was by the phone line.

"I assume you found me in that book by now," Julian continued smoothly. "Perhaps we should get together, talk about old times. How's the family by the way? Oh that's right, they're dead aren't they!"

"Shut up!" Lisa yelled. "Look, you sick freak, you-"

"If you're planning on accusing me of killing them Lisa, you have to remember it wasn't me that made the first ah-hah, bite."

"It wouldn't have happened if you had just left me human," Lisa retorted.

"You know, they say the Separation is caused by a latent hatred directed towards family members. You hate them, you kill them. It's that simple."

Lisa slammed the phone down with a sub-human growl and thumped the table. Hard. It collapsed. She looked up to see Mark standing in the door again.

"You know, you keep waking me up like this and I swear I'll get so mad..."

**September 5 2006**

"I don't care, I'm going with you." Mark folded his arms and tried to loom over Lisa, as if that would somehow change her mind. It didn't.

"You can't, it's too dangerous."

"Like hell it is."

"You just don't get it, do you?" Lisa dropped a suitcase on the bed and started throwing clothes into it. "He's been tracking me Mark, ever since I left. He knows where I've been, he knows what I've been doing. He even knows about you staying in the apartment for god's sake! If you come with me, you'll just end up dead like all the rest."

"Right." Mark slammed the suitcase shut, holding down the top with his hand and looked into Lisa's face, ignoring the malicious stare she gave him. "You left them behind and they ended up dead, did you ever think about that? I've got a better chance of surviving if I come with you than if I stay here."

Lisa let her head drop a little, realising that he was right, that in some perverse way she had been responsible for more than she was willing to admit. "all right, you can come."

"More than that, I can drive." Lisa stared at him again. "What, you don't actually think you could survive a plane trip all that way do you? Even with your alleged tolerance, you'd be exposed to a lot more sun than might be healthy."

"I guess... I didn't really think about it." I didn't think about any of it, she thought. What was I thinking anyway?

She realised she had let the monster take over and drive her, even if it was in just that small way. Irrationality frightened Lisa, because from there she would quickly descend into the chaos of the demon, and this time there might not be a way back out again...

She relented, and saw Mark smile for the first time since their date, only a few days previous, but already such a long time in the past.

"all right, you can come with me but I'm warning you," she forced his hand from the case and started packing again. "If you get yourself killed..."

"Whatever."

It was another day before they finally left. Mark, conscious of Lisa's aversion to sunlight, spent the time acquiring several tins of black paint, coating the windows of his car until they were completely opaque. Then he stocked up on food from his Uncle's business and, finally, they were on their way.

He drove during the day, whilst Lisa sheltered in the back. At night, he slept and Lisa drove. She found it relaxing, especially when she thought about how she would feel travelling by plane, or even by rail. All those people surrounding her, driving her over the edge, into the madness... it wouldn't be pretty. And then the sun... Lisa glanced up at the front window and saw the long shadows of telegraph poles stretching across the pavement, cast orange in the low evening sun.

"Lisa?" Three days had gone by now, with only two stops. It had been Mark's choice surprisingly and Lisa hadn't felt the need to protest. After all, she didn't need to stop that often...

"What?"

"Why are you doing this?" Mark looked over his shoulder into the darkened rear of the vehicle, making Lisa wonder if he was ever nervous sitting up front... she knew she would be.

"I already told you why," she replied, but it wasn't enough for Mark.

"You only told me why you ran away," he shot back. "It doesn't really explain why you're going back. So why? Revenge? That doesn't seem much like you, from what I know about you."

"What do you know about me?" Lisa leaned forward enough that Mark could see her face, but not so far to catch the sun.

"I know enough."

"I see..."

"So," he said after a short silence. "Why?"

Lisa considered her next move. She could tell him a lie, but he wouldn't be satisfied with that. She could tell him the truth, but that was something she had tried to forget for such a long time... "I loved him. I think he loved me too, but... I don't know..."

Was that true? Lisa had asked herself the same question over and over again. If it was, and Julian had loved her, he had a very strange way of showing it.

"Why are you so interested anyway?"

"I just like to know these things," Mark replied, returning his eyes to the road. "I guess you don't love him now, right? Considering... right?"

Lisa didn't answer. That was probably the worst part of it, knowing how she felt... did she? Do I still love him? It was terrifying... yet, that might be the reason she was going back, above all others. Love. Was that a valid reason?

"I guess..." Lisa said eventually. "But whatever I might feel, he was the one who made me like this. Look, can we pull over when it gets dark? I'm getting a little cramped..."

"Sure."

They drove for another hour as the sun sank toward the horizon, finally disappearing in a blaze of colour that would have amazed Lisa at one time in her life; now it worried her instead. All that light. Mark drove them to a gas station, the kind that seems to sprout out of nowhere in the desert, complete with ancient pumps and a small, dusty grill and bar full of grease and bad light fittings.

"I'm just going... uh... y'know." Mark stepped out and disappeared in the gloom. Lisa waited until he was gone and climbed out herself, making a beeline or the bar. She was hungry. More accurately, she felt a hunger... Mark didn't know, but she had run out of her supply yesterday.

The smell hit her as she pushed through the door. An odd mixture of grease and human, with some onions in the background for flavour, burnt. It, Lisa reluctantly admitted to herself, was temptingly delicious. It was also the only sustenance she could expect between her and Springfield... she approached the bar.

"Whadda ya want kid?" The owner, a rough, balding man with an eye-patch glared at her though his single good eye.

"Uh... rare steak?"

"What you see is what you get kid," he said, waving a hand over a few plates under a row of heat lamps. "Was just closing up for the night when you came in."

"Well I'm... sorry for keeping you." Great, overcooked junk... "There's no chance of that steak then?"

"'Pends on how rare you want it," he said, glancing at the rear door. "Now back there I've got the juiciest steaks this side of the Rocky mountains, but they'll cost you this late at night."

Lisa noticed the glance... and then the sweat on his forehead. He was scared, and now she knew she could smell it almost dripping off him. The man reeked of fear... why hadn't she noticed it before? She started backing away from the counter.

"Look," she said to the man. "Uh... could you just come and help me with the telephone? I think it's broken."

The man seemed to sag visibly, a look of profound relief o his face as he spoke. "Yeah, sure I'll look. Let me just-"

The kitchen door burst open and something leapt out. Several somethings in fact. They swarmed around the room faster than most people could think and set upon the restaurateur. He fell without even a scream.

"Mark!" Lisa yelled at the top of her voice, turning, running from the building as fast as she could go. "MARK! Get back to the car!"

The windows burst open behind Lisa, showering glass over everything as one of them leapt out to stop her. She cried out in pain as the shards dug into her back, but didn't stop. Where's Mark?

"Lisa!" Mark came running around the back of the car, holding... a shotgun? "Quick, get in!"

The smell was building around her now. Them. They had followed her, or they had known where she was going... how they knew, she had no idea, but it didn't matter. Lisa knew of perhaps one other instance in the past of one of their kind turning 'good.' His death had been by all accounts incredibly brutal and slow.

She felt a hand on her shoulder, not friendly, trying to drag her back. She was almost there... it wasn't fair! A shot rang out. Both Lisa and her assailant were thrown backwards into the dirt by the blast. She felt something dragging at her legs, tried to crawl away, her fingers scrabbling uselessly through the dry dust.

She turned and lashed out with all her might, ripping at something with her fingers and feeling the satisfaction of hearing a scream. Lisa kicked out, rolled on to her side and was about to stand when something crashed into her skull. She fell back to the floor, heard one last cry from the gun and then finally blacked out.

**RETURN**

She was scared of the dark. She remembered it again, like the last time. Scared. Terrified. She knew if a light came she would leap and cling to it as if she were a child clinging to its mother. And the light came. And she ran to it, through the thick sludge of her mind, the pulsating rhythm of a heartbeat pounding into her skull, but there was something different. Someone different... someone standing, blocking her path. You have no right to be here!

She tried to push past him, to the light, but he stopped her. You will not pass! And yet, she could see someone in the light, beckoning to her...

"MOM!" Lisa shouted, waking with a start. There was a fire burning in the hearth in front of her, casting a flickering, orange light over her. An incessant thumping beat shocked through the floor into seat, the sounds of a party. She looked around, found her mind wandering back... "Mark?"

"He isn't here," a familiar voice said from the gloom. "But I am."

"Julian." It was a simple statement. She betrayed no malice, no anger... "What have you done with him?"

"Oh he's safe, for the time being. As are you if you co-operate."

"I don't like threats Julian." Lisa twisted in her seat, found her arms and legs bound to the chair with rope. "What do you want with me?"

"I could ask you the same question, Lisa." Julian stepped out of the darkness, so close Lisa could have grabbed him if she were free. He smiled. "Aren't you glad to see me, my love?"

"Don't make me laugh..." Lisa twisted her right arm a little and found the bonds loosening. Her left, though, was rather more tightly secured. She glared at Julian as he slowly circled her.

"Now Lisa," he said, leaning forward a little. "Why are you here?"

"You know exactly why," she growled, baring her teeth. It was animalistic, she knew, but it was also her nature.

"Refresh me."

"Bastard..." Lisa tensed her arm and pulled, hard, tearing through the ropes like cotton. She kept lifting, bring her closed fist into his chest in a blow that would kill any normal man outright. Julian barely winced, even as his ribs cracked. His hand clamped down on Lisa's other arm and held it there.

"Lisa, Lisa... I thought you always said violence never solved anything?"

"I'm a lot more cynical now." She grabbed Julian's wrist and tried to pull it away. "Get- ow! What the...?"

Julian let go of her arm and backed away slightly, still smiling. Lisa's bonds fell away and she was able to lift her arm, feeling a needle withdraw as she did so. "What is this, a sedative?"

"Why no, nothing of the sort." He leant a little closer, and Lisa could almost taste the stench of is breath. "You might find your senses becoming somewhat more... alert. You've been injected with a sensory enhancer, freely available from most drug stores and quite harmless in most respects."

"What purpose?" Lisa was slurring a little. She could smell something inviting wafting through the floorboards from the club below. The demon liked it. "What..."

"You have to stop denying what you are Lisa, or you'll never be happy."

"I'm a monster," she said. "Just like you."

"Monster? Oh, nothing of the sort... we are simply superior, and once you accept that you can feel at home again." He knelt down next to her. "Think about it Lisa, never having to run again, having somewhere to stay. Having friends, a life to live. You want that don't you?"

She spat in his face. Julian stood up, wiping the spittle from his cheek and eye. "I never told you what actually happened to Vlad, did I? He went like you in fact. 'Teetotal,' or something... I suppose the thought that he had driven you away from our little group sent him over the edge."

"So you killed him?"

"Eventually."

Lisa huffed and turned away. She could almost feel the heat of the throng below, taste them in the air, the mixed scents and aromas driving her to an internal frenzy that was so hard to resist... Mark...

"You can feel it can't you?" Julian said beside her ear. "Hungry?"

"Leave. Me. Alone." Lisa spoke through gritted teeth. There was another, closer scent now, stronger, seductive... She felt someone turning her head, and found herself looking at a door.

"There's a good 'meal' through that door, Lisa, if you want it." Lisa said no, but the demon said yes... and stood her up. She was through the door before she knew what was happening, unable to stop, unable to even see anything except the huddled shape on the floor. Julian stood at the door behind her. "I'll see you in a while, Lisa."

The door closed. Darkness. Only smell to guide her, overpowering, nauseatingly strong... she circled slowly, trying to fight, but already she was animal. The prey whimpered. She pounced, clawing at flesh, dragging its head back, biting. There was a scream.

It was Mark. Lisa fell back on her haunches.

"Oh god Mark! No!" The hunger was gone now, banished, as an overwhelming sense of dread overtook her. She gingerly touched Mark's neck, felt a warm sticky ooze... and a pulse. She took him in her arms. "Mark, wake up! Wake up!"

His eyes flickered open.

"L... Lisa? Aaah..." a feeble hand reached for the gaping wound on his neck. "What happened?"

"I'm sorry Mark I..."

"You bit me! God that hurt..." His strength returning, Mark pushed himself upright and nursed the wound. "I can't believe you bit me!"

"I... couldn't help it. You're not mad are you?" Lisa flinched as mark stood up, batting her arms away. They lost each other in the dark.

"What in hell kinda stupid question is that? Where are the lights in this shithole!" Mark walked into a wall, yelling obscenities. "I suppose you're going to go back to your 'boyfriend' now aren't you? Is that's why you're here isn't it? For him?"

"No you don't understand! I-" Lisa jumped when a hand covered her mouth.

"Shh..." Mark was whispering in her ear. "Sorry Lisa, just play along..."

He let go of her again and backed away. "Lisa don't do this! NOO!"

There was a crash, which made Lisa jump despite herself. She ran forward, arms out, tripped over something... Mark, lying face down by a broken chair. She leant down to him, heard a whisper.

There was a knock at the door about five minutes later. It was Julian. Lisa stood up from where she had curled herself, walked over and let him in.

"Ah, Lisa," he said, leering at her. He spied Mark lying in the corner, a raging wound on his neck. "I see you have re-acquainted yourself with your pernicious little 'friend'."

She shot him a vicious glare but said nothing.

"Oh come now Lisa, don't be so downhearted. You still have your health."

"I don't want my health! Not if it means I end up losing everything I cared for."

"Ah, your family." Julian stepped into the room, flipping a light-switch by the door. His smile remained fixed. "It would be nice to say they were here to see you, like in that film... but no, that wasn't the plan."

Lisa turned, watching him almost incredulously as he sauntered around the room and eventually ended up admiring sword on the wall. Any feeling she might have had for him were quickly dissipating. And yet...

"So what was the plan?"

"I thought you might have guess by now Lisa." He turned to face her. "You know I loved you, don't you? I still do. And you love me don't you."

"I..." she spied a movement out of the corner of her eye. "Will you leave me alone if I said yes?"

Julian smiled again, a fuller, perhaps happier smile and was about to speak when a chair crashed into him, knocking him off balance just long enough for Mark to beat him to the ground with a chair leg.

"Rat-faced snake-skinned son of a bitch!" he yelled, beating Julian a few more times. "I don't know what the hell pernicious means but if you ever call me that again I'll-"

"You'll what?" Julian flipped himself upright without any effort and punched "Beat me to a bloody pulp? Kill me? I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm a bit tougher than even you New York scumbags!"

He didn't hit Mark, so much as propelling him across the room with his fist. Mark landed in a heap in the corner, groaning.

"And as for you!" Julian turned and grabbed Lisa's shoulder, dragging her around in a macabre dance. "It's obvious you were planning something, or he'd be dead. And he will be dead..."

"Not if I can help it." She kicked him, hard, in a place most people care not to think about, and let him drop to the floor. "Mark?"

"Whaahaaa..." he groaned. "... I think I cracked a rib."

"I think you cracked more than that," Lisa said shortly, as she ran to help him, glancing up at the sword on the wall above them. She leant down and helped him up. "Come on, we'd better get out of here before he recovers."

"Sheeit..." Mark paused as they ran past the prone body of Julian. "What did you do to him?"

"You don't want to know. Come on!" Lisa tugged at Mark's arm to drag him from the room. There were stairs, although she didn't know where they went, and once they were on them the sound of dancing and beat music got a lot louder.

"Are we ever going to get away from him?" Mark yelled over the music.

"I doubt it! But... we'll have to see!"

Lisa kicked down a door and they ran through a crowded nightclub, pushing mindless dancers out of their path. There was a door, one that Lisa remembered from all those years ago. Now, where there had been a bookshelf and a clock, two heavy looking bouncers were standing, guarding the door.

Lisa tried to look nonchalant, leading Mark to the door, but it was hard to blend in when you were bleeding and limping. The bouncers quickly took note; even more quickly Lisa realised they weren't entirely human either. One was already pushing through the crowd to Lisa, the other was speaking into a radio, waving his arm urgently. Lisa turned, dragging mark in a circle and plunged back into the crowd.

"What?"

"Wrong exit." Lisa looked around. There were no windows left unsealed, no other exits. The bouncers were closing behind them... "We'll have to get out upstairs. Come on!"

"But... Lisa, that guy is still up there!" Mark tried to resist Lisa's hold on his arm, but she was too strong for her.

"There's also a way out up there."

There was a scream behind them. One of their pursuers, frustrated, had bodily thrown a clubber out of the way in his haste to reach Lisa and Mark. People started shouting and yelling, pushing past them in a bid to escape. The music stopped just as Lisa reached the stairs again.

It was clear, and the bouncers were still some distance behind. Almost dragging Mark now, she ran up the stairs and back into the room where Julian had been. He was gone.

"Okay, way out way out..."

"There," Mark shouted, pointing at an open window. "Looks like a fire escape."

"Why didn't I see it before?" Lisa leaned out and looked around. The dark emptiness of the forest looked back at her. She looked down. There wasn't a ladder, but there was something else..."

"Because," a third voice said behind them. "I didn't want you to."

Julian stepped out of the shadows, limping slightly.

"Thought you could get away Lisa?" He waved to the bouncers who had just stormed in, dismissing them.

"Yes, actually, I did."

Julian snorted and strode across the room toward them. "Such naiveté. It's rather cute, in a way."

"You keep your hands off me," Lisa said, batting his fingers away from her face when he tried to touch her. "You know I thought I loved you once."

"I thought as much. Oh well... it's obvious now you're too set in your ways to ever change back, no matter how strong the temptation," he said, eyeing the wound on Mark's neck. "A pity."

Julian turned and retrieved something from a desk by the far wall. It was a small box, which he spent some time fussing over before opening.

"Mark," Lisa whispered. "When I tell you, run to the window and jump out."

"Are you kiddin me?"

"Just... trust me." Lisa straightened up as Julian came back to them, her eyes narrowing at what he was carrying. "You're actually going to use that?"

"Eventually," he said, turning the stake over in his hands. "I thought I'd just show you what was in store if you don't change."

"Nice." Lisa kicked out at Julian again, but he dodged.

"I was expecting that," he sneered.

"I know. Mark, run!" Lisa leapt across the room as Mark ran for the window, giving Julian targets. He chose Lisa, who by this time had landed across the room and was slowly turning to face him.

Mark paused by the window. "Lisa?"

"Get out of here!"

He leapt, leaving Julian and Lisa alone. They circled slowly.

"You know there's still a chance for you Lisa. Come back to us. We can give you the world."

"Sure you can Julian... all you ever gave me was a stupid badge," she took the brooch from her pocket, where it had rested for the last seven years, and threw it on the floor. "I want my soul back."

Julian laughed. He stepped back and kept laughing, taking his eyes off Lisa. She turned and, with lightening speed, ripped the sword she had seen earlier from the wall and swung it at Julian. It was blunt from years of neglect, but it did the job, breaking a huge gash in his side and knocking him to the floor.

Julian screamed as she came at him again. She screamed too, roared, a primal noise that struck terror into her own heart, making her drop the sword inches from Julian's neck.

"What, aren't you going to finish me off?" he yelled, holding his side. Lisa stepped back, retrieving the sword, and looked down at him.

"No, I'm not. I was going to, when I thought I loved you," She leant down, making sure the sword-tip was resting on his neck. "You see, I thought about putting you out of your misery because it was the best thing, because I thought I was in love wit you. But I'm not in love wit you. The best part is, you want me to do it don't you? You want me to kill you, because you didn't realise what you were getting into did you?"

She stood up again. "You thought it would be cool to be like this, didn't you? And when you realised it wasn't as fun as it seemed, you wanted to share your misery. So you chose me. That in itself would be enough to make me kill you, if I were any other person. But I'm not any other person. Despite everything that's happened, I'm still me, and I don't kill, Julian, not if I can help it."

She turned and walked to the window, still carrying the sword.

"So that's it? You're just going to leave me here?"

"Yes."

"But... you can't! What if I come after you?"

"It won't matter if you do," she replied. Lisa climbed on to the windowsill and jumped to the ground, landing in a thick pile of leaves. Mark was sitting nearby, smoking a cigarette and watching the trees.

"Why aren't you hiding?" she asked, throwing the sword into the undergrowth.

"No point, not when they're so busy trying to control that mob over there." He pointed at the doors, where several burly men were trying to hold back a group of clubbers from getting back into the building. "I guess that's that?"

"Yeah..."

Mark stood up awkwardly, still nursing his side, and the wandered away from the club. No one followed them. They found the car around the back of the building, stripped of everything except the paint, although the keys were still in the ignition. Mark remarked that they must have thought it was worth something...

"So where to?" he said when they were safely away from the old house. Forest whipped by on either side of them.

"Home, I think."

"New York it is then!"

"No..." Lisa placed a hand on his arm. "My home."


	5. Final Resting Place

**FINAL RESTING PLACE**

Evergreen Terrace was different. Older, dustier... the houses seemed deserted to Lisa as they drove down the street. Yet they were still familiar...

They pulled to a stop in front of seven forty-two. Lisa's home. There were earthworks in the garden, so that was different, and there seemed to be more peeling paint and a few tiles less on the roof... nobody lived there, obviously. And next door, the Flanders were gone too.

"Well, at least it's not been knocked down..." They both got out of the car and looked around.

"This whole place looks deserted," Mark observed. "What a dump."

"Like Queens is any better?"

"Shaddap..."

Lisa stepped across the earthworks and up to the front door of her old home. It wasn't locked. It wasn't even closed properly, as if someone had just slipped out and meant to be back in a few moments... She pushed against the door, dislodging a seven year-old pile of junkmail, scattering it across the bare floor.

It was dark inside. The windows were boarded up through most of the house, leaving little space for light to flow in. That would be useful. Lisa left a trail of footprints through the thick dust on the floor, up the stairs, to her room. It was empty too... except for a single wardrobe that was too big to fit through the door.

"Lisa?" Mark stomped through the house, nursing his left arm. Of course, that rib won't heals for a while, Lisa thought somewhat sadly.

"I'm in here Mark." She touched the wardrobe. The only piece of her old life...

"This is incredibly morbid you know," Mark said, coming through the door. "This place must have been deserted for ever. Ooh what's behind the door?"

"A lost world." Lisa turned and walked from the room, out into the dusty corridor. If she closed her eyes she could almost hear her family downstairs, yelling and shouting...

"Woah, Lisa, there's a horn in here!" Mark came out of the room holding a battered, oxidised saxophone. "Was this yours?"

Lisa took the horn and examined it. "Yeah, it was..."

She put the horn gently back in its cradle and closed the door. There was a faint shaft of light shining on the wall now. Sunrise.

"I'm going to stay here," she said to Mark. " You should probably go back to New York."

"No point in that, unless I want to end up as a cook the rest of my life..."

Lisa laughed. "You want to stay? Well... you won't be here for long."

"Why?"

"Because..."

"Okay, I can see I don't want to know." Mark walked to the window and looked out. "Looks like this place is pretty deserted all round... I doubt anyone will come up here... what about that guy you kicked? Julian, wasn't it?"

"I doubt he'll be coming after me again," Lisa replied with a wry smile.

"Even Vampires have nads..." Mark turned around again. "Okay, I'll go and get some food or something."

"Food..." Lisa froze. "Mark, leave the room quick."

"Um... right." Mark stepped out and closed the door behind him, leaving Lisa alone in the dark. She curled up in the corner of the room.

Later that day she ventured out of the room and found an old journal book in the basement, another remnant of her lost life. It was her own... she tore out the used pages and started writing.

**FINALE**

**SEPTEMBER 19 2006**

Springfield was almost deserted these days, through whatever means Lisa didn't know, but it couldn't be much fun. She had spent the last few days searching out down the creatures who had destroyed her life, picking them off one by one, preying on them as they had preyed on the mankind for centuries... all but one. Julian, the man she had once loved, had disappeared the night she had escaped. She didn't know why, or where... but he had left her alone, and that was a good thing.

Maybe he would come for her again. It didn't matter. He wouldn't find anything.

Now, though, she was tired. Tired of her life, tired of the killing... tied of existence itself. Mark had left the food for her and she had eaten it, perhaps as a final favour. She had gone into town one last time to see the streets she had called home, visited the ruined elementary school, the old library, the statue of Jebediah Springfield. The head had fallen off again...

It was storm season, although that could come at pretty much any time around here. Rain lashed the darkened streets, making everything look oily and new like some just completed machine, ready to go. She could smell them, even through the rain. They feared her...

Dawn was colouring the horizon by the time she reached home. The storm was gone, banished by the promise of an 'Indian summer' day. Mark was waiting inside and from the looks of things he'd been up all night, watching dull programs on the TV he had 'found' nearby. Neither of them spoke as Lisa took off her coat and hung it out to dry.

Eventually, though, Mark seemed to give up.

"You're planning something aren't you," he said pointedly, switching off the TV.

"I've been planning something for my entire life Mark, it's hardly unusual."

"This is," he said. "I know what you're going to do Lisa and I don't like it."

"No, Mark, it isn't different." Lisa flopped into a chair and sighed. "I've tried to explain what it's like being me so many times now, but you still don't understand do you? I suppose you never really will... I've lost so much."

"But you-"

"I've been planning this for my entire life Mark. My entire life," she stood up again, gaining no benefit from the chair. Already the air seemed lighter as the dawn grew. "You realise I haven't seen a proper sunrise for seven years? Do you know what that can do to a mind, knowing something exists and yet being unable to experience it?"

"Well not really..." Mark picked up a beer. "I guess I can't make you change your mind."

"No, you can't." Lisa pulled a pair of sunglasses from her coat pocked and placed them over her eyes. "I want to see the sun one last time Mark. Just once..."

Mark stared at her. Lisa turned her back and placed her hand on the door, waiting for the right moment, waiting for the light to call to her. ... it was dark, but she wasn't afraid. Her mother beckoned from the light, held out her arms...

"I love you Lisa."

"I know. Goodbye Mark."

She opened the door and stepped into the light.

**END**


End file.
